1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle with at least one catadioptric camera fitted on the vehicle. The camera is one in which at least one curved mirror arranged on the optical axis of the camera is used as an imaging element. The camera allows panoramic viewing in directions transverse to the optical axis, with an azimuth angle of up to 360° with respect to the latter. According to the invention, the catadioptric camera is preferably used to monitor the space at the back and front of the vehicle.
2. Related Art of the Invention
Along the optical axis, the field of view of a catadioptric camera is bounded in both directions by conical blind regions. The field of view boundary of such a cone, or its semivertex angle, is dictated by the configuration of the camera itself, for instance the spatial extend and arrangement of the imaging elements.
EP 1 197 937 A1 relates to a spatial monitoring system for a vehicle, which comprises a catadioptric camera with an optical axis oriented vertically. EP 1 158 473 A2 also relates to such a spatial monitoring system.
Since the blind regions of a catadioptric camera cannot be made arbitrarily small, there are regions in the immediate vicinity of the vehicle which cannot be seen by these known spatial monitoring systems.